With the increased availability and decreased cost of various transportation modalities, traveling has become commonplace. Whether commuting between home and office, partaking in business trips, or traveling abroad or domestically, consumers spend a significant amount of time in transit. Often, a businessperson may travel to multiple cities in the course of conducting transactions or visiting clients. Some business travelers routinely shuttle back and forth between various corporate offices, while still other business travelers spend a large percentage of time in transit in an effort to generate sales. To put the need to travel in perspective, it is estimated a person spends on average approximately 1.3 hours traveling a day, with the average distance traveled equaling approximately 7,400 miles per year. Most current research estimates project the amount of time a person spends in transit to increase in upcoming years. Because a significant portion of a person's day is devoted to traveling, there is growing need for accessories and accoutrements that enable a traveler to take advantage of time spent in transit.
Perhaps no other tool has become as indispensable to the traveler as the laptop computer and other such portable computing devices. With wireless broadband internet access now available at a great variety of non-traditional locales such as parks, coffee shops and transportation terminals, the use of laptop computers and other portable computing devices is fast becoming the norm. With the advent of wireless communication protocol and the increased proliferation of laptop computers and other portable computing devices, time that was normally wasted during transit can now be utilized to conduct business transactions, to perform research, or to draft documents. No longer are individuals limited to using computers solely in the confines of the office or the home, as portable computing devices enable individuals to access and utilize the world wide internet from virtually anywhere and at any time, even when traveling.
Regardless of the reason for travel, businesspeople have common needs: the need to maintain contact with the office and the need to utilize travel time to continue. Because laptop computers are portable, end users often utilize laptop computers during travel, whether such travel is by car, train, or airplane. This trend is reflected in the growing number of railroad cars, airlines, and buses that provide travelers with access to power outlets and wi-fi hotspots. When deploying laptop computers and other computing devices during transit, most travelers attempt to re-create a compact and portable office environment that mimics a full-sized office environment. While in transit, travelers have a need to reference papers and notes and have a need to use pens, pencils and other such office accessories, but are often constricted by the amount of space available to place these items. Likewise, travelers frequently consume beverages while traveling and are limited by the amount of space available to place beverages, especially when laptop computers and other portable computing devices occupy the majority of available space. The small surface areas provided by the fold-down table trays found on most airplanes, buses, and trains often leave little to no extra space for resting and/or securing beverage containers or other office accessories. Often, there might not even be a fold down tray table or other such surface available to the traveler, giving the traveler even less space to work.
Because of the minimal amount of workspace available in transit, it is not uncommon for travelers to spill beverages or lose various accompanying items. For example, many commuters drink coffee in the morning and throughout the day. While on a train, drinking coffee and working on a laptop computer simultaneously can be a difficult if not impossible task, especially when the amount of workspace available is at a minimum. Moreover, the stop-and-go motion of the train greatly increases the risk of damage to a traveler's laptop computer via spills and errant splashes from the adjacent beverage container. Likewise, documents, pens, pencils, and other office supplies are often displaced from the limited workspace available during transit. Documents fall beneath seats, and pens and pencils become wedged between cushions or seat rows, all of which disrupt a traveler's workflow and efficiency. Consequently, it is apparent there is a growing need for a simple and effective means for increasing the amount of workspace available to a traveler, so as to prevent accidental and damaging spills from beverage containers and to be able to place documents, pens, pencils and other accessories in a secure area. The presently contemplated invention described herein addresses the need for creating additional workspace during travel by proposing a portable beverage container used in conjunction with a laptop computer and other such portable computing devices, with said beverage container holder being used to hold beverages or other types of office supplies, items and accessories.
There are a variety of prior art patents disclosing the use of portable beverage container holders in conjunction with objects other than computers. U.S. Pat. No. 6,832,745 B2 to Lindsay, for example, discloses a vehicle accessory holder adapted for use in a motor vehicle having vertical support posts in the passenger compartment of the vehicle. While the invention contemplated in Lindsay describes a means of providing a detachable container holder, the invention nonetheless is limited to automobiles and further limited to automobiles having a particular vertical support post in the passenger compartment. The invention described in Lindsay does not work in buses, airplanes, trains, or in automobiles lacking the vertical support post. Consequently, the invention described in Lindsay fails to address the need for a portable container that can be used in every travel scenario or the need for a portable container that can be used in conjunction with a laptop computer or other such portable computing device.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,107 to Sinohuiz also discloses a beverage container holder. Specifically, the beverage container holder described in Sinohuiz is capable of being removably attached to a substantially vertical chair member, with the beverage container being rigid and not collapsible. The invention described in Sinohuiz is primarily geared towards lawn chairs, with the beverage container specifically configured to snap onto the arm of a typical lawn chair. The beverage container holder disclosed in Sinohuiz is not capable, however, of attaching to a surface other than the arm of a typical lawn chair, nor is the Sinohuiz beverage container holder easy to transport since it is rigid and not collapsible. Thus, the invention disclosed by Sinohuiz fails to address the prior art problem of a portable beverage container holder that can be used in any transportation modality and in conjunction with a laptop computer or other such portable computing device. The same limitations described in Sinohuiz also apply to U.S. Pat. No. 6,505,802 B2, issued to Fowler. The beverage holder described in Fowler is permanently attached to a mounting surface via a threaded bolt and a threaded nut, and cannot easily be removably attached, transported or reattached to other surfaces. Consequently, the beverage container holder disclosed in Fowler, just like the previously described patents, fails to address the need for a portable beverage container holder that can easily attach itself to a laptop computer regardless of the travel environment.
There are a slew of prior art patents that contemplate the use of cup holders in conjunction with other types of surface environments. For example, there are various beverage container holders found in the art that secure to a horizontally disposed support structure, such as the handlebar of a bicycle, including U.S. Pat. No. 4,256,281 to Harris, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,390,427 B1 to McConnell. The inventions described in Harris and in McConnel are limited, however, in that they are not portable, require multiple steps to install the beverage container holder, and can not be used in settings that lack a horizontal support structure. As a whole, prior art portable beverage container holders fail to address the traveler's specific need for an easy to store means for increasing workspace and holding beverages during transit.
Attempts to utilize beverage container holders in conjunction with desktop computers have been addressed in the prior art, specifically in U.S. Pat. No. 6,550,737 B1 to Sai, et. al. The Sai patent discloses a beverage container holder that secures to the side of a stationary desktop computer monitor via a vertically disposed clamp. The beverage container holder in Sai can be affixed to either the right or left vertical side of a desktop computer monitor. The beverage container holder claimed in Sai, however, is limited to desktop computer monitors and does not disclose use of the beverage container holder with a laptop computer or other such portable computing device. Moreover, the invention disclosed in Sai is not configured to attach to a laptop computer or to the monitors of a laptop computer, and consequently are not compatible with laptop computers and would not be useful during travel.
In reviewing the breadth of prior art there is a common and reoccurring problem, namely that prior art devices are rigid, bulky, and not specifically adapted to the current needs of laptop computer users. There is a clear need for a beverage container holder that is portable, flexible, lightweight, and capable of supporting different shapes and sizes of beverage containers and other types of office items and accessories. Regarding laptop computer use in particular, there is a need for a convenient, travel-friendly beverage container holder that safely and easily connects to the laptop computer support surface or the laptop base itself (in cases where the laptop computer operator's lap is the support surface). The presently claimed invention solves the problems present in the prior art and addresses the currently unmet needs of laptop computer users while in transit.